Laila Hotait is a Lebanese-­Spanish filmmaker and she creates narrative works that dwell on the frontier between the realm of everyday life and the world of dreams. Her approach to filmmaking and art is free from genre boundaries and she produces award winning audiovisuals with a deep care in aesthetics artistically bluring the line between documentary, fiction and hallucination.

Hotait, as a Fulbright fellow, studied a MFA at San Francisco State University, and she holds a Ph.D. in Media Studies from University Carlos 3 de Madrid.

Hotait films have received the support of institutions such as the Sundance Documentary Fund Program, the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the Screen Institute Beirut, Cine Qua Non Lab, Berlinale Talents and the Doha Film Institute.

Laila Hotait’s first creative hybrid documentary, Crayons of Askalan, was screened in several film festivals, including Hot Docs, the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, CPH:DOX and DocsDF and has been available to watch all over the world at various VOD platforms, among them, MUBI.com and BBC Arabic.

Hotait artworks have received the Generaciones Art Award, the Laguna Art Prize-­Artist in Gallery and Nova 100 award and her artworks have been presented at venues such as the Arsenale of Venice, La Casa Encendida, Centre Pompidou, the Kunst-­im-­Tunnel Museum in Düsseldorf and art galleries around the world.